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Literary Societies, 



UMVKiiSITY OF YIRdlXIA 



Cil A UI><> rTKSVlLLK, VA., 



WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26th. 1872. 



\V \SllIN<ilOS: 
H. P.3LKINHORN ^ Co , PrIMTERS. 



ADD E ESS 



UEUYERKn BY 



ON. nLLEN G. 



HUR/VIAN 



BEFORK THE 



Literary Societies, 



UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 



CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA., 



WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26th, 1872. 



WASHINGTON: 

ji. POLKINHORN <^ po. , J^RINTERa 
1872. 



tc 



Univkksity ok Va., 

June'IWi. 1872. 
Hon. a. G. Tmini.\x. 

Stit: — 111 behiilf of the Ijiterary S'icieties ot'tlie University of Virginia, 
we would request for publication a copy of the Address delivered by you 
on the evening of the 2(Jth inst. 

With the highest appreciation of its excellencies, 
\W are, sir, 
Your most obedient servants, 

,,, . ( J. 0. TAYLOR. 

Charlottesville, June 28th, 1872. 
Gextlemex : 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your polite 
note, and to send herewith a copy of the Address. 
I am very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

A. G. THURMAN. 
Messrs. J. G. Tayloii and T. A. Seodon, 

Chairmen. 



J^ ID XD I^ E s s. 



The theme upon Avhicli I propose to offer some obser- 
vations to-night, is the future of our country, or, rather, 
the dangers likely to menace the existence of the Re- 
public, and the means of averting them. 

In the outset, I assume, what I believe to be true, that 
whatever differences of opinion have existed, or may yet 
exist, as to the advantages or disadvantages of preserving 
the Union, every American citizen now wishes it to be 
preserved, if at the same time liberty can be secured and 
the rights and interests of every section promoted. The 
proposition that freedom has no safe dwelling place, save 
in small communities, is an old idea, and, whether true 
or false, I have no quarrel with him who sincerely 
believesit. !N'ay,more, were the sad alternative forced upon 
us, to choose between a splendid despotism, ruling over 
a vast territory, and an oppressed people, on the one hand, 
and on the other, freedom in a small state and an humble 
community, no true man should hesitate to'choose the 
latter. For freedom is of such transcendent value that it 
far outweighs all the distinction, pomp and power, that 
the most successful despotism can ever achieve. But the 
experiment has to be made, whether a vast Republic may 
not co-exist with freedom, and with advantage to all its 
parts; and every one of us, I am sure, whatever may be his 
forebodings, is anxious to give the experiment a fair trial. 
Therefore it is that I speak upon this theme to-night. I 
know of none more appropriate ior an address to an 
assemblage of American youth. The mature men of 
to-dav will ere Ions; be gone. Whatever of good or of evil 



government may confer or inflict, will soon cease to 
trouble them. Their mantles will fall upon your shoul- 
ders and the shoulders of those, who like you, are just 
entering upon manhood, and upon you and your fellows, 
will rest the grave responsibility of contributing to the 
happiness or the misery, not of one only, but perhaps of 
many generations. Wisely to prepare for that respon- 
sibility is a task than which none can be nobler, none 
more elevating, none that better deserves to engage the 
understanding or warm the heart. 

The first danger to the duration of the Republic, of 
which I shall speak, is that likely to result from its mag- 
nitude. It is a trite observation that nations, like men, 
have their infancy, youth, manhood, old age, decay, and 
dissolution. Whether this analogy be fanciful or not, 
the history of the world gives no small support to the 
idea, that nature has set a limit to the growth and dura- 
tion of empire. The tate of Babylon, Xineveh, Assyria, 
Media, Egypt, of the Empires of Alexander, the Caesars, 
Genghis, Tamerlane, the Caliphs, Charlemagne, and 
Charles the Fifth, cannot, while it strikes our imagina- 
tion, fail to arrest our attention. We pause and ask : 
"Is it ever thus to be ? " But let us not be too hasty in 
our conclusions. True, those great monarchies have 
been rent into pieces ; true, the seats of some of them are 
now given up to desolation ; but it does not follow that a 
similar fate awaits us. They were, for the most part, 
the product of conquest, and over their wide domains 
despotism held unlimited sway. Their fate teaches how 
insecure is the empire whose sole foundation is violence, 
and how powerless is tyranny to perpetuate its rule over 
an unwilling people. But it does not teach — at least it 
does not prove — that a homogeneous people, under free 
institutions, may not attain and preserve a greatness that 
none of those States ever knew. To our country it was 
reserved to make this mighty experiment, than which 



nothing o;rander has ever engaged the sympiithies or tlie 
efforts of man. Let ns not, witli despondent souls, rashly 
predict its failure — hut, rather, with hopeful hearts and 
patriotic zeal, let us manfully strive for its successful 
acconi[ilislnnent. That our Repuhlie, if it hold together, 
will attain an unexampled and perilous greatness is cer- 
tainly true. Only fifty years hence our population will 
prohably exceed 100,000,000, or four times the present 
population of France. At the end of a century, in 1972, if 
it increase in the same ratio that has hitherto marked its 
D-rowth,the United States will contain more than twice as 
many })eople as now inhabit the continent of Europe. Tf 
it he inadmissible to sujjpose that this ratio of increase will 
continue, it is not irrational to afhrm, that within the 
lifetime of a child now born, (Mir jiopnlation will equal 
that of the five great Powers of Europe combined. Such 
an aggregation of mankind, for the most part homogene- 
ous, belonging to the most intellectual and energetic 
portion of the human race, speaking the same language, 
all more or less educated, occupying one of the fairest and 
most fruitful portions of the earth in that North Tem- 
perate Zone that seems to be the chosen habitation of 
civilization and progress, united under one government, 
and that a government of free institutions, w'ill present 
a phenomenon such as never yet has been seen in the 
world. History exhibits nothing like it. nc^thing that 
bears any close analogy to it. It strikes the imagination 
like the dawn of a millenium, and even the most sanguine 
and hopeful can scarcely regard it as more than a dream. 
But, who is there wise enough to foresee that it will not be 
reality ? Who is there bold enough to say that the Provi- 
dence that creates will not preserve ''. Who is there author- 
ized to condemn as blind and unreasoning optimism, the 
hope that the experiment may be crowned with success? 

It is true that a contrariety of interests is incident to so 
great and varied a territory. A\^ith but one interruption, 



the Republic extends from beyond the Arctic Circle in 
Alaska to the confines of the Torrid Zone, and from the 
Atlantic Ocean on the east to the Pacific on the west. In 
square miles its area nearly equals that of all Europe. 
It contaitis every variety of soil, from the most fertile 
plains to barren mountains and desert wastes. It holds 
in its bosom every earth and mineral useful to mankind. 
Its water boundary, with the indentations, exceeds 14,000 
miles. It thus presents a field for every industry known to 
man. Agriculture, commerce, manufactures, mining — 
every pursuit in short that serves to sustain or enrich a 
people are here seen in a state of unwonted andgrowing 
activity. That there must be some clashing of interests 
between the difterent sections of such a country, is obvi- 
ously true. That each section, in maintaining the Union, 
must make some sacrifice of its peculiar interests, is 
almost as obvious. But the question to be answered is, 
not whether such sacrifices are made, but whether they 
are not compensated by the advantages resulting from the 
Union. In my judgment, they are fiir more than com- 
pensated. A particular section may be oppressed for a 
time by unjust laws — as some have been, and I think yet 
are — but in the long run justice is pretty sure to prevail. 
In the meantime, the incalculable benefits of the Union — 
free trade between all its parts, unrestricted communica- 
tion, highways that penetrate the most remote recesses, 
exemption from foreign aggression, and peace at home — 
amply repay all the local sacrifices that occur. It is no 
answer to this to say that peace has not always prevailed, 
that we have just emerged from the most fearful civil 
war the world ever saw. True it is so, but for seventy- 
three years domestic peace did prevail. For seventy- 
three years no man lost his life in civil commotion, no 
man was executed for a political offence. The history of no 
other nation records a similar experience. Xot one ! No, 
not one ! " To insure domestic tranquillity," is declared 



in the preamble to the Constitution, to be one of the ob- 
jects for which it is ordained. It did insure it for nearly 
three-quarters of a century, and if, at last, wc fell upon 
evil times, the exception only illustrates the generality of 
the rule. 

The diversity of races and languages among us is 
considered by some to be fraught with danger to the dura- 
tion of the Republic. American, Goth, Celt, Anglo-Saxon, 
Teuton, Latin, African, all contribute to form our popu- 
lation. But I apprehend tliat the danger supposed to 
arise from this diversity, is greatly exaggerated. Of 
the thirty-eight and a-half millions of our ])Oople in 1870, 
but five and a-half millions were foreign born, and they 
were scattered throughout every State and Territory of 
the Union. And for the most part they are intelligent, 
industrious, thriving, and sincerely attached to free insti- 
tutions. With the increase of population, the pro- 
portion of foreign born to native citizens will decrease 
each year. The various elements of white population 
will become more and more blended, until a homogene- 
ous whole will be the result. The American of a century 
hence may differ from the American of the past or the 
present century, but yet, whatever his origin, he will be 
an American. What people are more homogeneous than 
the French? And yet, in their veins runs the blood of 
Celt, Roman, Goth, Teuton, to say nothing of lesser sub- 
divisions of the human race. AV'hat more composite in 
his origin than an Englishman, to whose blood the Celt, 
the Roman, the Dane, the Angle, the Saxon, the Xorman 
all contributed ? Yet, what uniUcation more complete 
than that of the English people of to-day ? We have 
nothing then to fear, as it seems to me, from the diver- 
sity of race among our white population. They will, 
before many generations shall have passed away, be 
merged into one common type, the American of the 
future, with the same language, the same literature, the 



10 

same sentiments, and substantially the same character- 
istics. 

The African presents a more difRcult problem. By 
some it is supposed, that, followino; an instinct of his 
nature, the negro will, eventually, drift into a more con- 
genial clime for him — the Tropics. But a century, nay 
many centuries, may elapse before this will occur, should 
it ever occur. The climate of the Southern States is not 
unfriendly to the African, as his rapid increase there 
for nearly two hundred years attests. His exodus, unless 
precipitated by a war of races, which humanity and the 
interest of both white and black forbid, must necessarily 
be slow. Practically then, it may be assumed that he is to 
remain a citizen of the Republic. And the question is: 
will his continued existence among us endanger its dura- 
tion? As long as he was a slave, he was a bone of conten- 
tion between the abolitionist, seeking to set him free at 
whatever cost, and the Southerner, insisting upon the 
guarantees of the Constitution. Then, indeed, he did 
endanger the Republic. But, though he is to some ex- 
tent a bone of contention yet, I do not see that he is longer 
a source of peril. His race now constitutes less than thir- 
teen per cent of our population. With each returning 
census, although the absolute number of the race may 
be greater, the proportion will be found to be less. Its 
numerical strength may increase, but its relative 
strength Avill constantly diminish. As a cause of 
strife among the whites, as a facile instrument in the 
hands of designing and unscrupulous men, the negro is 
certainly a disturbing element, but great as are these evils, 
they are not beyond the rectitying power of time, pru- 
dence, and patience. 

Another cause of anxiety is found in the proneness of 
mankind to war and their love of military glory. It was 
a celebrated English philosopher who said, that war is 
the natural condition of the human race. It is to be 



11 

hoped for the credit of the race, that the saying is untrue. 
But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that two or three 
hundred or more millions of people — the future popula- 
tion of the United States if they liold together— have 
never yet maintained perpetual peace. So inclined are 
men to war, so intoxicating is military glory, so great 
are the honors and eiuoluincnts awarded to successful 
chieftains, that peace, perpetual peace, over a continent, 
.seems more like the dream of a visionary, than the well 
founded hope of common sense. In the four hundred 
and fifty odd years of the Ronum Kepublic, the temple 
of Janus was shut but once. In no year since history 
was written, has peace prevailed over the entire globe. 
Even in this nineteenth century, which we are accustomed 
to call enlightened, there is scarcely a great Power in 
Europe that has for twenty consecutive years been ex- 
empt from war. In view of these facts, it may well be 
asked, where, it the Republic be perpetuated, will be the 
outlet for the warlike spirit of as warlike a people as ever 
existed? AVill it find occupation in war upon our neigh- 
bors? Where are the neighbors who could long re- 
sist ? Will it make battle with the Powers of Asia or of 
Europe? The soldier would gather few laurels in a war 
necessarily waged upon the deep. Where then but in civil 
strife could the warlike temper be dis[.layed and military 
honors be won ? And could the Republic long bear the 
strain of such strife? I can only answer that nations 
have survived the most dreadful and sanguinary civil 
wars. Not to multiply instances, witness France, Austria, 
Eno-land, Spain. It may be unwise to expect that we 
shall escape the calamities that have befallen other peo- 
ples, but it is not, I trust, unreasonable to believe, or at 
least to hope, that we m ly be able to survive them. 

It is not uncommon to hear the remark, that the pas- 
sions and prejudices excited by the late civil war will 
lono- endure, and cannot fail to imperil the Union. 



12 

This is not the time or the place to discuss that war. 
Indeed many years must elapse before impartial and 
philosophic history will do exact justice to the actors in that 
mighty scene. But this much may now be safely affirmed, 
that if the -N"orth believed, as it did, that right was 
on its side in suppressing what it regarded as a rebellion, 
the South had equal contidence in the justice of her 
cause. For four long and weary years, against the most 
fearful odds, and in the midst of privation and suffering 
that might have appalled the stoutest heart, her people 
upheld that cause with a heroism and fortitude never 
surpassed. To doubt their sincerity in the face of this 
fact, is simply to shut one's eyes to the truth — to heap 
unmerited reproaches upon them, is to disregard the plain- 
est maxims of wisdom, charity and justice. It is doubt- 
less true that the o-reat features of the strusrsrle will never be 
forgotten. The influence of a contest that placed America 
in the front rank of the warlike nations of the earth; that 
developed characters, whose names can never pass into 
oblivion; that made many a battle field heroic ground to 
be reverentially trodden by the feet of pilgrims from age 
to age; cannot be eft'aced in a day. But, unless all 
history' teaches a lesson that is false, the bitterness of feeling 
engendered by the strife will pass away and cease to 
shape the conduct of men. What nation has ever suffered 
more from civil wars than France, but what Frenchman 
now speaks of them save as events of history ? What 
Englishman inquires, unless from the instinct of a harmless 
curiosity, whether his neighbor's ancestors wore the red 
rose of Lancaster or the white rose of York, or whether 
at a later day they were roundheads under Cromwell or 
cavaliers under Charles? AVheu were the passions of 
men ever more excited than in the civil wars of Rome, that 
followed the passage of the Rubicon and ended onh' when 
the victory at Actium placed the imperial diadem upon the 
brow of Octavius? Yet more than three centuries elapsed 



18 

before the Empire was divided, and it was not until 
nearly eleven centuries more had rolled around, that 
Mahomet, the second, placed the Crescent above the Cross 
on the dome of Sophia and put an end forever to the 
Empire of the East, 

But why dwell upon particulars, when every nation 
that exists or has ever existed, presents an example of 
the forgiveness or forgetfulness of injuries given and 
received. A wise Providence has ordained that hate 
shall not " reign eternal in the human breast." The vio- 
lent passions of our nature may dominate for a time, 
but the strain is too great to last, and in the end the bet- 
ter and gentler emotions prevail. Every revolving year, 
though it may not blot out the memories of the past, 
will soften their asperities, and the time may come, more 
speedily than the most sanguine now hope, when a frater- 
nal feeling will animate the breasts of all who find shelter 
and protection under the aagis of the Republic. 

I come, lastly, to consider what, in my judgment, is a 
greater peril than any of which I have spoken, the tenden- 
cy towards centralization. In treating this subject, I must 
necessarily express some political views, for they are 
inherent in it, but I shall not violate the proprieties of 
the occasion by speaking as a partisan, and I trust, that I 
shall avoid w^ounding the most delicate sensihility. If, 
as I have supposed, the theme that I have chosen is a 
proper one, it cannot be improper to express calmly, 
impartially, and without party bias, feeling or purpose, 
the thoughts to which it gives rise — thoughts, indeed, that 
are inseparable from its consideration. 

The tendency towards centralization is by no means 
confined to the United States. It stands revealed in 
the consolidation of Italy, the unification of Germany, 
and the union of the British Provinces under the Do- 
minion of Canada, as well as with us. There may be 



14 

liiddpii canoes of tliis teiuleney, tliat it is difficult to dis- 
cover, bnt there are other causes too patent to escape ob- 
servation, or at least agencies that work without ceas- 
ins; ill a centralizing; direction. Every ship that is 
launched, every railroad that is built, every telegraph 
wire that is stretched, is an ag-ency of this kind. The 
ship owner looks to the Federal Government, clothed 
with the power "to regulate commerce with foreign na- 
tions, and among the several States," for the protection 
and encouragement his interest requires, and naturally 
wishes that Grovernment to be powerful enough to grant 
him all he asks. The Railroad Company, spurning the 
limits of a State, projects its road through many States, 
and submits, with iU concealed discontent, to the vexa- 
tions of local law. The road itself, almost annihilating time 
and space by the rapidity of transit, brings the most 
remote regions into close communication, until the mind 
finds itself losing the idea of State lines and thinking 
onh^ of the wide-spreading Republic. And so, in a still 
more eminent degree, with the telegraph. 

But these are not the only agents of consolidation. 
One of the most powerful, if I am not mistaken, is 
what may be styled metropolitan literature and the 
metropolitan press. It has been said that orators govern 
Republics, but if the remark were ever true, it is true 
no longer. Had every member of Congress the eloquence 
of Demosthenes, they could not mould public sentiment 
against a press whose daily issues exceed 1.300,000, 
and furnish daily mental food to millions of readers. 
But of these 1,800,000 daily sheets, about 1,170,000, 
or nearly eight ninths of the whole number, are pub- 
lished in the three cities of Xew York, Philadelphia, 
and Boston. More than one half of the Avhole num- 
ber issue from the press of New York alone. 

If We turn from the dailies, to the weeklies, tri and 
semi-weelvlies, reviews, and magazines, we iind the same 



1.S 

strikino; foot, that these thvec! cities arc the groat cen- 
tres of publication. There is scarcely an art or industry 
that has not its organ in the city of New York. So too 
of the books published in the United States. More 
than tliree-fourths — probably nearer nine-tenths — issue 
from the press of these three cities. The effect is 
that they liave become the great centres from which the 
facts, the fictions and the ojtinions that are moulding 
the American mind, emanate. But local self-goverment 
requires vigorous and independent thought on the part 
of those who uphold it. It is a [ilant thatdoes not tionrisli 
in tlie atmosphere of monopoly wiiether of business or of 
ideas. The centralization of power that has distinguished 
tor centuries every government of France, wluiTever its 
form, has been owing in, a great degree, it is thought, to 
the centralizing influence of Paris. And so, I am in- 
clined to think, the tendency of the facts I have stated, 
has been and is to strengthen the idea of consolidiitiou 
among our people. Look into many of the school books 
and see whatpolitical doctrines are taught to our children- 
doctrines that twenty years ago no party would have ven- 
tured to assert. See how in newspaper and periodical, 
in law book and volumes called historical, the powers of 
the federal government are exalted to a height beyond 
the imagination of the warmest advocate of a strong 
irovernmont when the Constitution was formed. In 
hrief, see how literature in all its departments, influenced 
by the materialistic tendencies of the age, or si-duced by 
the glowing image of a gorgeous and imp-rinl ri-pubTu', 
lends its potent aid to the work of centralization. Ami 
remembering that this literature comes from a section of 
the country in wliicli centralization has ever found its 
most able and efficient supporters, 1 think that I do not 
err in attributing to this cause all the wei^dit that 1 
attach to it. 

Another strikinu' fact mav have some connection with 



16 

the subject under discussion. I refer to tlie much more 
rapid rate of increase in thelastseventy years, and tlirough- 
out all Christendom, of the urban than of the rural popu- 
lation. The population of England in 1871 was nearly 
two and a-half times as great as it was in 1801. But, in 
the same period, the population of London had grown 
from 876,000 to 3,883,000; of Liverpool from, 77,600 to 
493,000 ; of Manchester, from 70,000 to 355,000. From 
1800 to 1866 the increase of population in France was 
about thirtj'-three per cent. But in the same time the 
population of Paris was nearly trebled. BerHn, which, 
in 1816, contained but 182,000 inhabitants, now contains 
over 700,000. St. Petersburg has six times the popula- 
tion that it had a century ago. Madrid contains two and 
a-half times as many people as it did in 1845. And 
these are but illustrations. Throughout all Europe the 
population of the cities and towns has increased far more 
rapidly than that of the country. The same thing is 
true of America. The last census shows that in some of 
the States there was within the last decade no increase at 
all of the rural population, or one too insignificant to be 
noticed. The whole increase was in the cities and 
towns. And with the exception of some of the new 
States, the same census shows everywhere in the Repub- 
lic, an increase in the cities and towns altogether dispro- 
portionate to that outside of them. What will be the 
ultimate eflect of this fact, if prolonged, upon our insti- 
tutions, I do not venture to predict. 1 merely note it as 
a fact very striking in itself, and worthy of the pro- 
foundest consideration. 

I have thus, in a very imperfect manner, I am aware, 
brought to your attention some of the causes, or at 
least agencies, that are at work tending to create a 
supreme centralized government over the Republic. To 
these is to be added the inevitable effect of the late 
Civil War, in which the govenmient assumed powers by 



17 

all admitted to bo Gxtraordiiiary, and to tlio oxci-cisc of 
which the people became liabituated. 

Of course it will be understood that in enumerating 
among these causes, commerce, railroads, telegraphs, 
literature, and the press, I manifest no hostile disposi- 
tion towards them or any or either of them. There is 
no one so absurd as to be their enemy. But the best of 
earthly things may have evil as well as good tendencies, 
and it is but common prudence while we accept and 
enjoy the good, to seek to avert the evil. 

That with tremendous power all these causes have 
operated and yet continue to operate, might easily be 
shown by our history for the last ten years, and 
especiall}' by a review of the Constitutional amendments 
and the legislation of Congress. But I forl)ear to enter 
upon that field, lest it might be deemed inappro- 
priate to the occasion. I will only venture the sin- 
gle remark, that the interpretation placed by some com- 
mentators upon the first section of the I4th article of the 
amendments, makes the jurisdiction of Congress supreme 
over all State legislation in evervthing that concerns life, 
liberty, property or the e([nal protection of the laws, in 
short in almost everything that is the subject of law. If 
this is the true interpretation, consolidation already 
exists. 

It remains to be considered, whether tlie concentration 
of all power in the hands of the Federal Government,* 
would be likely to preserve or imperil the existence of 
the Republic, To my niind, nothing in the future seems 
more certain than that it would not only im[ieril, but 
ultimately destroy it. I do not believe it possible that it 
could long endure under such a system. AVhatever name 
might be given to it — Kepublic, Monarchy, Empire, or 
Federation — its true name would be despotism. There 
never was a greater mistake- than to suppose, that a 
government of despotic powers is alone able to govern 



1-S 

a great extent of territory. The very reverse of the 
proposition is nearer the truth. The very magnitude of 
a country, diversiiied in its interests and in tlie habits, 
usages, customs and traditions of its people, makes local 
self-governments an indispensable necessity. AVithoutour 
system of States, the Federal Government would never 
have existed; without them, it could never have extended 
from ocean to ocean ; without them a happy, contented, 
free, and prosperous people would never have been our 
boast. And whenever they shall cease to exist or shall 
become but a name, the foundations of the Eepubiic 
will have crumbled away and the structure they sup- 
ported will hasten to its fall. I cannot repress a feeling 
of amazement when I see men, whose ability and patriot- 
ism I cannot <leny, straining every nerve to extend the 
jurisdiction of the Congress over m-atters of the merest 
local concern in the States, as if it could possibly be either 
right or politic for the purely local law of a State to be 
made by the representatives of other States. And I can- 
not but marvel at the blindness that does not perceive, 
that a Congress Avith such powers would soon become 
the most corrupt body on earth, and fall to pieces from 
that corruption. 

But it is time to bring this discourse to a close. 
I have endeavored to point out some of the dangers that 
menace the duration of the Republic, and to weigh their 
importance as I went along. How they are to be averted 
it would be presumptuous in me to predict. To time 
and experience must i)e left the task of providing reme- 
dies for whatever evils may be found to exist. Our 
foi-efathers, in framing the Constitution, Avisely provided 
for its amendment. Tliey knew that no work of human 
hands is perfect; they knew that what is sufHcient for 
the wants of one generation, may, from changed circum- 
stances, be inadequate to the wants of another. They 
foui'dod a government more perfect than the world had 



19 

ever known. They ordained it not for tliemsolvos only. 
l)ut for their posterity also. To those who sh<-)uld come 
after them, they left the task of making snch alterations as 
experience should prove to be necessary or wisdom 
commend, lleirin consists the prime element of safety 
as long as tlie government shall endure. That the Consti- 
tution will be further amended there can be no doul)t. 
If it shall liappen in your day, sec to it that the right.- 
ol' the States and the liberties of the people be preserved. 
Ill the meantime, cultivate your own literature, main- 
tain 3'our own institutions of learning, sustain your own 
press; in a word, " do your cwn thinking. "' 

Young gentlemen, w'ithin the peaceful precincts of this 
University, inseparably associated with the immortal name 
of Jeiferson, in the bosom of a Commonwealth whose 
fame will endure as long as genius lias a worshipper, 
freedom a disciple, or heroism an admirer, you have re- 
ceived 3'our preparatory training for the great trials of 
life. It is no pathwa}' of ease that you are soon to tread, 
but it may prove a highway of honor, if you tread it well. 

Without rash and overweening confidence, but with 
brave hearts and steadfast minds, you should enter upon 
it. Let no vain repining over the past; no morbid dis- 
gust with tlie present; no unmanly fear of the future; 
unnerve your minds or palsy your efforts. Go forth, 
resolved to contribute by your talents, your education, your 
industry, your energy, to the welfare and glory of your 
native land. Let this be your earnest and unvarying 
rule of action, and whether fortune shall grant or with- 
hold honors and wealth, you will have in your dying 
hours, what you will then prize more than honors and 
wealth, the inward consciousness of a well spent life. 



-<fpn^ 



